It Takes Money To Make Money

How about a local printer and buying a quantity and selling them along with your wares? With local printing, you would have far more control of what the book ultimately looks like.
Do you have an e mail list of your customers? You can send clients to your book that way as well.
With some of my books, if I don't have them on hand, it is a missed opportunity.
And yes, it DOES take money to make money!

Roger, here is a link to a writing website with a good reputation that gives comparisons and information about PODs and other publishing companies. http://www.writersweekly.com/pod-price-comparison.php .

IMO - The only way to avoid boxes of books taking up garage space for years on end is to:

1. Hawk it to a real publisher
2. POD publisher

Or you can be like my religious nut cousin and sit out side grocery stores next to the Girl Scouts selling cookies and try to get random people to buy her "You're Bad This Book Is The Key to Salvation" book.

If you are looking for small quantity book printing you can use The Book Patch.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+book+patch&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I have used them to print 25 copies of one of my books, so I could autograph for those who wanted. They will sell it for you too. They se a wholesale price per book, in my case $8/bk I sell it for $13plus mailing. I have been very happy.

BTW - My "The Quotable Westie" book and my "Pugs" books sell because they retail for around $10 (thanks to the small size and CreateSpace an Amazon company) so they are priced right for gift buyers. $50 is too high. The goal has to be under $20. Unless you are selling to collectors and they are limited edition. If there is demand for that then go for quality.

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Kevin - when you say "they will sell it for you" do you really mean to say "They will offer it for sale"? Just like here, you can't avoid promotion.

Ah... yes that is exactly what I meant.

Edward,

Are your books, full color image/photo books?

My 92 page book is now an 8"x10" full color, hard covered book

I would have thought Roger, that your shop was the perfect place to sell your timeless book! and calenders and all things Roger. I'm recovering (lol, really? ugh) from spending most of my savings on patents that failed to get backers, and an ebook that hasnt sold along with the others lol... and dont mention artwork.... having said that its all good experience. Im sure packs of your goodies might/might not work as a prroduct...(edit: i think your stuff is great! i added "might not" to cover all possibilities in my stupid humour) I think why marketing by a professional publisher works is that 1. it instils far greater added worth 2. they have the connections 3 they have the money to spend.... i wwish i kneew what to say.. i previouslyblogged having approached 100 companies and getting 8 interested up to a point ( a different invention) .. but nothing so far is rolling rolling rolling.. except my head on a block but im happy to spit the blood out at those who want it lol (excuse my repulsive poetic-artistic writing)... BEWARE OF SCAMS... my close freind also lost most of his savings to a Florida based bitcoin and we have involved the police and higher authorities.. so watch out you bastards out there :-)

ps i think far more sinister works goes on in the interent, all is full of activity that is criminal and also coversive and psycho intimidating.. just sayinnh.. you know who you are and so do we.. hopefully the internet wont eat itself, maybe capitalism will.. maybe teh coversive will...we wait and see.. trust is an essential ingredient these days that has gone down the plug hole and it might be because of a few fcukp ups on the interent

Jason,

Unless I have the Coots in Renaissance garb, I wouldn't be allowed to sell that work at my booths (NY & Maryland) .


I don't want to be frozen for fear of scams, ..But I AM!

The problem is that I know it would be almost impossible to do it on my own.

And I'm not against spending money if I get value in return

lulu.com

google...how to be cost effective printing a book.

Robert,

LULU apparently has hard cover versions in the portrait format, not in the landscape format.

i used lulu, they give u an isbn and shop front and a range of update and dustribution, but cover and paper were just adequate.. and i just got bored with the effort, took me 1.5 to 2 years for my novel, the poetry is draining... i should um... get the camera out and go out ;-) of course lol.....

know anyone on tv? flash it on or have a radio chat...

Jason,

Maybe I should go check to see if Sharon King is still alive

Robert congrats on your book! I have over the years taken on numerous business ventures and my bottom line is return on investment and always to minimize risk! I like your 2nd option best. I have always been a shoe string type of business person, I built a small real estate empire buying property with little or no money down. Small Business ventures are always very risky but many times they can be very profitable. I always like to start small, there is always room down the road to upgrade. If it were me with a book I would check out amazon kindle and subscribe to their self publishing format and offer the book in digital form as well as paper back. GOOD LUCK!

My latest venture is DUCK WEED (Lemna Minor)! I sell it on amazon, it's amazing, I sell a product I don't produce and doesn't cost me a penny to aquire and in addition to that amazon charges the customer more than it cost me to ship the product so I get a piece of that action also. I have an unlimited supply of my product and it cost me zero $$$ to produce. That's my kind of business. Lol

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